Sunday, May 4, 2014

Homemade pizza alla Norma: definitely the right night!

Do you have from time to time that uncontrollable desire of eating something made with your own hands, which is also genuine and unbelievably mouthwatering? If the answer is NO, you will think I am some kind of psycho, but... if the answer is YES... great... join the club! It actually happened to me just yesterday, when I wanted to make some homemade pizza alla Norma and it took me just a couple of hours for preparing the whole thing. The result was fabulous!!! Here is the recipe I used.

Before starting the preparation of your pizza, make sure you have all your ingredients measured and ready to use. 1. On your kitchen surface mix the flour with the salt and make a well in the middle. 2. In a jug mix the yeast with "some" of the warm water and the sugar, whisk it using a fork and leave it there for few minutes. 3. Pour it into the well; 4. Add the oil of olive and start kneading until you have a smooth, elastic and compact dough. 5. Keep adding the remaining water, little by little, letting absorbe it and give it the shape of a ball.

Place the ball in a large bowl dusted with flour at the bottom, cover it with a cloth and let it rise in a warm place, far from airstreams, (like the oven for example) for at least an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

While the pizza is rising, you can cut the aubergine/eggplant in slices and fry them in a pan filled with olive oil. Now it's time to roll out the pizza with your rolling pin.

Keep some more flour next to you and use it on the rolling pin so that the dough won't ruin or make holes. Choose the tickness according to your taste, then place it on a baking tray.

Heat the oven on 180°. Now we are ready to make our pizza!Spread 2-3 table spoons of tomato sauce, few leaves of fresh basil in little pieces, cover all up with mozzarella cheese and place the fried aubergine/eggplant on top. Finally sprinkle with little grated parmesan cheese. Place in the oven for about 15 minutes, but if you have rolled out the dough quite thin, better to check after 10 minutes.